Here is my Twin Cities Sports Photo Portfolio that happens to be the result of my recent addition, TwinCitiesSportsPhoto.com, a Minnesota photographer resource for freelance and amateur sports photographers.

You cannot buy Japanese Kobe beef in this country. Not in stores, not by mail, and certainly not in restaurants. No matter how much you have spent, how fancy a steakhouse you went to, or which of the many celebrity chefs who regularly feature “Kobe beef” on their menus you believed, you were duped.

It is now illegal to import (or even hand carry for personal consumption) any Japanese beef. Before 2010 you could import only boneless fresh Japanese beef, but none was real Kobe. Under Japanese law, Kobe beef can only came from Hyogo prefecture (of which Kobe is the capital city), where no slaughterhouses were approved for export by the USDA. According to its own trade group, the Kobe Beef Marketing & Distribution Promotion Association in Japan, where Kobe Beef is a registered trademark, Macao is the only place it is exported to – and only since last year. If you had real Kobe beef in this country in recent years, someone probably smuggled it in their luggage.

via Food's Biggest Scam: The Great Kobe Beef Lie – Forbes.

A great read and another example that reaffirms Microsoft Marketing should not do accountanting and their examples are not real or trustworthy examples.

7 Reasons Why Microsoft Private Cloud Cost Claims in the Paper are Invalid

In this specific incident, the breach was the result of an incorrect configuration for user authentication. The hackers were able to circumvent the authentication system and gain access to secured data on the servers.

This type of HIPAA breach may be common and preventable. The multiple layers of security organizations try to apply to the physical layers can often be compromised with the most basic of programming or configuration errors at any level. No Firewall, Intrusion Protection System, Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware, or logging would have identified the invalid configuration. Instead, Technologies that monitor these types of configurations are more in tune with identifying the issue and correcting the problem before it becomes a breach.
From the Utah DOH Blog Post

DTS servers have multi-layered security systems that include many controls, including perimeter security, network security, identity management, application security, and data security. In this particular incident, a configuration error occurred at the authentication level, allowing the hacker to circumvent the security system. DTS has processes in place to ensure the state’s data is secured, but this particular server was not configured according to normal procedure.

For a few years, VMware has been highlighting vCenter Configuration Manager, (VCM) to monitor files and configurations in the datacenter. VCM provides a configuration change and remediation engine to ensure user errors are caught and remediated as quick as possible. The main selling point made by VCM is the following:

vCenter Configuration Manager automates critical configuration and compliance management tasks including configuration data collection, configuration change execution, configuration reporting, change auditing, compliance assessment, patch management, OS provisioning and software package distribution.
vCenter Configuration Manager supports configuration management across virtual and physical servers, across VMware Infrastructure and across multiple operations systems including Windows, Linux and Windows. In many cases vCenter Configuration Manager supports automated enforcement and remediation of non-compliant configurations.

This one example demonstrates the importance of configuration and Compliancy Management when working in regulated environments. A simple audit scan and compliance check may not have caught this problem, but the knowledge of knowing what changed and you can immediately revert back to a previous state adds great comfort in knowing you have control over your platform. Even better, since vCM logs all changes, we know when, how, and who is responsible for the breach.

Details on the hack can be found here on the Utah Dept of Health Blog:
April 6th – Impact of Medicaid data breach on DTS server widens

Details on the VMware vCenter Configuration Manager: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vmware-vcenter-configuration-manager-DS-EN.pdf

This week, I decided to look deeper at the FUD and poke it with a stick. Let us look at the obvious questions we need to ask ourselves as we evaluate Microsoft notion that Hyper-V R3 will be “Good Enough,” and why don’t they want me to virtualize on Hyper-V R2?

First, a major argument from Microsoft is that you should wait for Hyper-V R3. This argument assumes you have no need for virtualization today or that you don’t care about the cost opportunity savings you lose by waiting 12+ months to delay a virtualization project. The simple savings of 12+ months of virtualization would often pay for the entire virtualization project. Nevertheless, they do not seem to care that you are losing money in the period while you wait for a new hypervisor that may or may not be suitable for your business needs.

My reply, VMware is not standing still. While Microsoft would like you to sit and wait for their next release, VMware continues to innovate with technologies like Storage DRS, Virtual Storage Appliances, and continuous availability with Fault Tolerance. By the time Microsoft releases Hyper-V R3, VMware will be long into its next release assuming VMware maintains its yearly release cycles as it has done in years past. VMware continues to focus on leading in DELIVERING REAL MEASURABLE VALUE to the enterprise. Advancements in density, performance, scalability, stronger security, cloud automation, and tighter integration between enterprise tools will add more value than the ‘Free’ Story and delayed adoption offered by Microsoft.

Back in 2004, when analyst originally assumed VMware only had a three year lead over Microsoft, yet, VMware has continued to accelerate the innovation and widen the gap between VMware’s vSphere hypervisor compared to where Microsoft claims they will be in 2013. If you review Microsoft’s history of promising features and under delivering on the results, we may see significantly more time before they have a competitive hypervisor.

When I dig deeper into the message from Microsoft, the supporting facts rapidly start to fall apart. At a recent VMware User’s Group, I asked VMware customers what is it they use their virtual platform for and what do they expect from VMware. While answered differed, stability, scalability, performance were top of the list. It is clear that no other solution will stand up to vSphere in terms of cost savings, scalability, performance, or quality of service for the money spent.

Next, for Microsoft Windows, virtualization is a service and a feature like File Sharing, Print services, and Internet Information Server (IIS) in Windows Server 2008 R2. It is one of hundreds of services and applications built into the core Windows Server OS. For Microsoft, virtualization is not their core competency and will never be the priority when the major revenue for the organization comes from Windows Desktop and Microsoft Office user licenses. Microsoft’s diversification into entertainment, game consoles, mobile devices, search engines, and tablets mean that Microsoft has virtualization low on their priority agenda. Do you want your cloud and virtualization platform to run in a Legacy OS with the same legacy limitations as your desktop OS?

Next, Microsoft still does not have a full cloud strategy for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Remember, according to Microsoft’s own advertising campaigns, cloud computing is storing your family photos in the “Cloud”. (http://youtu.be/Lel3swo4RMc) Their tools seem to follow this same limiting idea. Microsoft assume you will virtualize a small subset of 3rd party applications yourself and then take the time to rewrite, at your cost and your time, all of your applications to support their second cloud strategy, Azure. Azure is a Microsoft proprietary software development and hosting platform with no other third party hosting solutions. Even their own Azure cloud does not run their own release versions of Hyper-V, so why would you? Speaking of Azure, it is like the old Roach Motel message, apps check in, but they cannot check back out.

Stop and ask yourself, “Will you run your most critical x86 workloads on Windows?” You had better be 100% Windows Server 2008 R2 unless you are willing to accept limited support and scalability of your platform. This platform is limited to focus on the core Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 and is not ideal for Linux, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or any other x86 OS for the matter. Looking even further at Microsoft’s approach it confirms that Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 are still the only real supported solutions on Hyper-V.

Do not over-look that Hyper-V is still built upon the Windows OS, Win Core, and open 3rd party device drivers that cater to Windows Server 2008 R2 OS’s. The same features that Microsoft touts as advantages are also the platforms greatest weakness. These same third-party drivers are responsible for the majority of the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death that takes down our production applications at the most inopportune time. Do not expect Microsoft to contribute significant development for virtual drivers and support for virtualizing any other major operating systems.

The stability of a dot zero hypervisor on a new dot zero Microsoft Windows server that still gets the same Patch Tuesday, Anti-Virus, and common Zero-day attacks is a risky venture for any mission critical solution. Only a few days ago RDP fell victim to a potential WORK attack and required both the VM’s and Servers to be patched and reboot. Microsoft’s history of throwing out the old, redesign for the new, and supporting the legacy introduces new uncertainties in to the platform. A new file system, a new OS, a new security model, and a new undefined license model also add to the uncertainty of adopting a yet unreleased platform.

We’ll dig into the financial argument next…

The new camera strap design and connector do a lot of things right compared to my old Black Rapid sling. I like the solid plate on the bottom that allows me to leave my tripod head mount in place. I also trust the quality and sturdiness of the connector over my older simple swivel of my old sling.

If you carry your camera, this is a must! While this does have its limits as well, it is by far the best strap I have owned.

Pros:
- Solid base plate allows connector to be offset from camera center
- Built in hex/allen wrench to tighten/adjust connector
- Base plate allows for tripod head mounting plate
- CS-Pro includes long lens support and wrist carry strap
- Connector is solid and strong!
- You cannot beat the price! $55 for the full pro kit!
- Double camera strap option available!

Cons
- Wrench does not always fit back into base plate
- would be nice if ball head would adjust to allow camera to sit flat on flat surfaces.

Still the best strap and $55 I have spent on my cameras.

If you are on the fence and looking at a virtualization platform, consider reading Ken Hess’ article ‘Beyond Hypervisor hype, hyperbole, and hyper-rudeness: Hyper-V vs VMware’. Specifically the call out on “Windows Security – Oxymoron Time”.

With a protocol exploit, this may also be the time to reconsider your desktop protocol decision if you are currently using RDP for VDI environments.

[Update]
If you want to know more about the RDP Exploit, take a look at the following posts:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS12-020 – Critical
Vulnerabilities in Remote Desktop Could Allow Remote Code Execution (2671387)
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms12-020

Exploit code published for RDP worm hole; Does Microsoft have a leak?
https://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/exploit-code-published-for-rdp-worm-hole-does-microsoft-have-a-leak/10860

The true power of a cloud platform should be its independence from other clusters and datacenters.

If one is down, my apps and servers should be available in the next available datacenter. VMware created Site Recovery Manager just for this purpose. When a disruption in service occurs at a primary datacenter, SRM goes into action and recovers the platform in the next available datacenter. Both datacenters need not be tightly coupled. Even better, Technologies like vCloud Director from different providers ensure you have redundant services. When you provider fails to deliver, simply spin up your platform in the next providers datacenter. Microsoft has over looked some key aspect of cloud computing… Portability, Redundancy, Recoverability, and Choice.   If your platform is mission critical to customers, treat it like it is mission critical.

Don’t get me Wrong… VMware’s BETA Cloud Foundry has had it’s outage as well.  The key idea is still know that your platform has alternative options.  A JAVA based app using open source components can easily be ported to another provider.  What is the difference, How Many providers provide AZURE hosting?  One?  How many provide VMware Cloud based hosting?  Take a look at your options before you move your apps to the cloud.

When you choose a cloud platform for your SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS, do you consider how integrated the solution is? Do you stop and consider that the solution may be so tightly integrated that a single update could take down all the datacenters worldwide in your provider’s cloud?

Moral of the story: Make sure your critical cloud hosted apps have recovery options.

Take advantage of buying this solution as a bundle at Amazon.com.

See the setup in action!  How To: PocketWizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 for Nikon

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